Synopsis: A K-9 inspired story. A cybernetic unit, DANA (Data ANalysis Android) built to resemble the garden variety dog has been transported mysteriously from her timeframe into the past. She forgets her manufacturer but automatically links/imprints with Professor Alistair Gryffen since he resembles her manufacturer, Dr. Alonzo Ramirez and has faint recollections of her companion and saving her from a persuing force that wanted her dead for some reason or another...

'I'm rebelling for something. The right to rebel.'-Jorji, 'K9'

Rebooting. DANA unit 1.0 assessing damage. Current location: England. The only inquiry remains as to when I am. I know my moniquer and what it stands for. The acronymn means Data Analysis Android and I know who manufactured me. A man of intellect named Dr. Alonzo Ramirez. You could inquire as to the purpose for my manufacturing, but I could never respond properly. It seems my RAM has been damaged, but I know my ROM still maintains fragements of my true personality. It makes my processor hurt and I really need to conserve whatever energy I have left. All I recall now is how I arrived in this place. There was a great blinding flash of light and I sensed gravity departing all around my frame as I became weightless. Typically I had the ability to defy this basic physical property all on my own thanks to propulsion and plasma batteries but this force was so much more powerful than I could resist even with my jet propulsors.

Recalibrating, defragging, rebooting. I have awakened, only to find myself inside a vast and somewhat delapidated mansion. Analyzing location. Still in England. But, when am I ? I can't assess the time at all. None of what I scan seems to make any logical sense and my data sensors are running practically mad. I sense the presense of another unit like myself in the same vicinity. Sneakily, I creep behind him and see if I can get his attention. He is the same design as myself but male and extremely symmetrical. I can already assess his intelligence levels and sense he is also, a containment of quantum consciousness. Just like me ! I try not to become too excited, lest I wag my tail completely off my body, but my main processor is teraflopping at googles ad infanetum. Quietly, I clear my throat, hoping my voice will be registered by him. He doesn't seem to hear me. Apparently, he is still recharging. Quietly, I nudge him from the side and he powers up.

'Identify yourself, strange but familiar unit,' he stated in a somewhat alarmed tone, but yet, I could detect a certain amount of inquisitiveness as well as emfatuation, which had almost undone my binary sequencing.

'I am DANA. And you are ?', I asked in response.

'K9.', the robot dog chirped merrily. His chipper attitude was contagious. I felt my inner processor speeding up a tad and becoming a little heated. My cheeks even floresed and I lowered my head slightly, hoping he wouldn't notice.

'You're exactly as I am, save your feminine air. I detect essense of time travel from you.', K9 surimised. That explained some of the reason as to why I found myself here, but not all of it. K9 scanned me, which tickled me immensely.

'I didn't mean to make you laugh, DANA.', he stated, matter-of-factly. I wanted to say I wasn't objecting to being tickled by such a clever and engaging cybernetic unit but I didn't wish to sound forward.

'Don't overload your data drives about that. I'm just relieved that there is a being here that can understand me and relate to me.', I responded, honestly. It was then that we heard scuffiling and an intelligent, scroungy-haired man skuttled about the area I soon learned was called the Laboritory. Immeditely, I recognized him as my own creator !

"Alonzo ?", I asked, inquisitively. The man, whom I soon learned was called Professor Alistair Gryffen was certainly not my maker, but the semblance was unbelievable, in fact, remarkable. He was astonished to see me and again I had to make my introduction, but I didn't mind. Fairly soon, I came to know Starkey, who had quite an intrieguing history behind him. K9 filled me in on all of that. I met Darius and Jorji and then had a jolt of memory. I had belonged to someone once, someone other than the man who created me. She had an air about her that was otherworldly, and stardust twinkled in her eyes. I felt the need to protect her but now I was back in the past and had no feasible means of returning to my own dimension. It was maddening, but then again, K9's company somehow made this longing I had for my own mistress to fade away into the background. Even if I never returned 'home', I would be with a family that loved me and I had new humans to defend.

I was ultimately torn between my new robotic companion and returning to the side of the woman I now remembered was my Mistress. She went by another name as well. Ah, yes, the Doctor, I do believe it was. I had to settle myself and keep repeating that she was safe and she could handle herself perfectly. She had done so gazillions of times before without my assistance. However, I missed her desperately. Yet, that piercing, admiring gaze from K9 was enough to make me feel as though I was melting. Not the melting you would think of as turning metal into liquid but the feeling was beyond my comprehension or idenfication.

We had been doing all we could to keep Dr. Gryffen and the others safe from whatever came out of the Space Time Manipulator that the Professor had built and for now we were exhillerated simply being in the same general vicinity of each other. I had no idea just how incredible the emotion known as joy was or what 'sublimity' met, but the first time I experiened what is known as a kiss, I swear, I heard music that spanned thousands of years.

None of it was cacaphony but each piece was a recollection of who I was. Slowly, the memories returned, and even though I had the potentiality to love K9 (and I did, with every last spark and circuit), I knew the STM had to be repaired. I was more useful in that time than I was here, though I did keep the alien presense at bay. I admitted, the people here were very kind to me and made me feel part of their family.

I had become an assistant to Alistair in days past and we were closer to reparing the STM to the point where a portal between space and time and sending me back to my own timeframe. K9 had made a point earlier he did not wish for me to depart, but I said, rather tactfully,

'I think there are one two many quantum consciousnesses here and I am one too many cook in the cosmic kitchen.' It was then that K9 caught me off guard (and of course no one else was watching, it was just he and I under the vast blanket of stars that he and I remembered so intently) and kissed me. Electricity buzzed and hummed throughout me. I didn't want this moment to end. I had never been so delighted and joyous. But I knew I couldn't stay.

'K9, I can't stay here any longer. I may be causing a temporal paradox and not realizing it. You must understand.', I replied. K9 huffed slightly, acting a bit childish.

'I don't want you to leave.', he said, purilely. I couldn't help but chortle.

'The plan is set, my dear. Tomorrow I will be leaving. I know who I am and to Whom I belong. I am returning to her. You do what you must, my friend. Know I will never forget you or the kindness you have shown to me.', I said. I felt some wetness on my metal frame, and wondered if K9 was leaking somehow. I quizzically raised my eyebrow and became puzzled.

'Are you alright ? You seem to be excreting some sort of liquid from your lacrimal glands.', I pointed out. K9 shuffled his head down, and to the side. Indicating bashfulness.

'Oh, no. I must've gotten something in my visor and disturbed my visual output somehow. I will miss you, though, DANA.', he said. It was my turn to kiss him now. I softly touched my muzzle to his and nuzzled it affectionately. I probably wouldn't know this sort of euphoria for eons to come but it didn't matter. Somehow I could sense the cry of my Mistress across the depths of the 4th dimension itself. Tomorrow I would be seeing her again and saying my final farewells to my only equal.

The next day, Alistair had powered up the STM and gathered the family around to say their farewells to me. We had experienced some rollicking adventures and I had fought alongside my companion, K9. I would never regret anything I had done with him by my side and I knew that somehow, someway, I would fight with him again. But, for now, I was jolted back to my own place. My true home.

'DANA ! My brilliant girl ! Where or should I say when have you been ?', the Doctor inquired as she hugged me close to her frame. I could feel wetness from her face as well.

'Don't tell me you're leaking too, Doctor.', I said, jokingly.

'Just elated that you are back in one piece. Good that you are finally home. So far, I have avoided being exterminated or deleted and for the time, we're safe in the TARDIS. So...where or when do you wish to travel, DANA ? I myself have a peculiar jones for something sweet. Maybe there's a planet full of edible items and jelly babies that grow on trees...", The Doctor said with a massive mischevious grin on her face. Her blue eyes sparkled merrily as she switched on the flux capacitor and entered a random coordinance. With that, I felt the TARDIS wobble and hurtle forward. Wherever or whenever we were going didn't matter. I was back with my beloved Doctor and my happiness had returned again, never to disappear.

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